The Navy, Department of Defense (DoD), and other government and private entities are in the process of identifying, assessing, and remediating numerous hazardous waste sites that are the result of decades of waste management practices that led to the release of contaminants to soil, sediment, and groundwater in coastal environments. Knowledge of grain size at sediment study sites can provide lines of evidence that can be applied to identify potential areas of contaminated sediment and contaminant discharge zones. Field surveys for grain size can require a full sampling regime including substantial analytical costs. The sediment friction-sound probe (SED-FSP) technology was proposed to quickly acquire grain-size information at a lower cost. The overall objective of this project was to field-demonstrate the effectiveness of the SED-FSP for direct in-situ measurement of grain size at contaminated sediment and groundwater surface water interaction (GSI) sites. The SED-FSP technology was demonstrated at three locations: (1) Naval Base San Diego at the mouth of Chollas Creek in San Diego Bay, NASNI Installation Restoration (IR) Site 9 and the Active Capping Pilot Study Site on the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. The costs associated with implementing the technology are similar to costs associated with sediment sampling deployments. Field-testing of the unit confirmed applicability of the technology where fine sediments were differentiated from sandy sediment and between sub-classifications of sands, sediments in the clay range ( 3.9 micro m) were not acquired either as a SED-FSP response or as results of laboratory analysis of site samples. Laboratory testing also showed that the SED-FSP did not resolve or accurately predict sizes of this range and smaller. The unit should therefore be considered for use where differentiation of sands and fines are required. Differentiation of silt (3.9 to 63 micro m) and clay sizes was not validated.

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